Do the inner fraud police live in your head? You may recognise them as the seductively believable thoughts that whisper, ‘You’re not good enough to do this,’ or ‘You shouldn’t be here – any moment now, you’ll be found out and busted for the lame-o fraud that you are.’ Yep. Those guys.

This unhelpful thought pattern is known as “Imposter Syndrome.” I describe it as a negative highlight reel, where you squintily fixate on all the times you screwed up, or didn’t live up to your own vertiginous expectations (perfection-itis anyone?). The trouble starts when you see this negative highlight reel as the “truth” – note the air quotes.

Emma Stroud to the rescue. Emma is a comedian (she even went to clowning school, which is just so freakin’ cool). She’s also a writer, coach, mentor, improvisor, mom and a generally funny and fascinating human. She has studied and practiced improvisation for 25 years, and I love how she uses humour, storytelling and improvisation in real life to cuff her own inner fraud police when they’re billy-clubbing her confidence.

In today’s episode, Emma shares some brilliant need-to-know tips to combat Imposter Syndrome. I can’t resist telling you that one of them includes the Benny Hill theme tune…

We jam on this:

Are there physical symptoms of Imposter Syndrome? (Spoiler alert: YES!). Learn how to use those clues to turn your reactionary thoughts in a helpful direction

How vulnerability can quiet Imposter Syndrome (and why this is not a paradox)